PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XI, Issue 574, 9 November 1880, Page 7

PROVINCIAL AND COLONIAL.

Ned Kelly is to be executed on the 11th instant. In the Victorian pedestrian contest Edwards made 177 miles, Swan 163, and Campbell, 150. The Exhibition returns for the Cup day show that over 20,000 visited the building during the day. Sunday week being Hospital Sunday in Invercargill £lO2 7s lOd was collected at the various churches. It is generally believed in Melbourne that the Hon. W. J. Clarke, president of the Exhibition Commission, will be knighted. The net takings at the representative cricket match were £2,600, half of which went to the Australians. The Christchurch Echo learns that as much as £90,000 of Canterbury money has been lost over the result of the Melbourne Cup. The Ttuxpeka Times says that in view of dear railway freight, the new clip of wool is very likely to go on road waggons direct to Dunedin. Mr David Proudfoot, contractor, of Dunedin, has made an offer to the city authorities to construct tramways in Melbourne, and his proposal is under consideration. The estimate that over 100,000 persons attended the' Melbourne races on the Cup day confirmed by the returns of the admissions, to the stands and hill. During the last passage of the Rotorua from Melbourne a passenger, Mrs Galbraith, jumped overboard and was drowned. Her husband and family were on board. A paragraph published in Auckland accuses Mr Maginnity of having written to Sydney asking the manager there not to employ the telegraphists who went out on strike in New Zealand. In a letter to Mr J. C. Brown, M.H.R., the Premier says:—" The re-arrangement as to the portfolio of Minister of Mines will be effected when Ministers are newly sworn in on the arrival of Sir Arthur Gordon." The free-pas's system would appear to have grown to enormous proportions on the Victorian Railways. It was recently stated in the Legislative Assembly that if free passes could be stopped £IO,OOO a year would be saved to the revenue. Mr O'Donnell, well known as the police sub-inspector of the Christchurch district, and for some time in charge at Clyde, has decided to retire from the service on compensation allowance, rather than continue in the force in a lower position. The current reductions are to be felt by the Victorian Government horses as well as by the biped members of the Civil Service. A statement was made in the House recently that the police horses have been reduced from 101b of oats to 51b per diem. It is rumored that the Government have received hints of intended smuggling on an extensive scale at various points on the coast, owing to the encouragement offered by the present heavy tariff, and that arrangements are being made to procure suitable revenue cruisers to keep a look-out around the coast. The West Coast Times learns that some 60 miners have recently come over Haast Pass from Otago, and many of them have set in to work at Bullock Creek, near the Haast. Many other miners have also proceeded from Otago to Okarito, where they have taken up claims. Generally speaking the prospects of the southern country are looking well. Amongst the prettiest exhibits at the Melbourne show is surely Messrs Joseph Bros.' electro-magnetically worked model of a quartzcrushing machine. This fussy little mite—probably about half a mouse's power, and certainly of such delicate make that any twomonths old baby could demolish the whole, and probably swallow half without a resultant Btomachache—pounds away nothing, but gives all beholders an admirable idea of the great monster of reality to whose beneficent work so many of our richest men owe their fortunes. H.M..schooner Conflict has returned from a visit to New Guinea. She went to the scene of the capture of the junk and the murder of th e Chinese. The Natives asserted that they killed the Chinese in retaliation foi* ill-treatment and other aggressions, and TbAised to give up the heads. Commander Izat failed to discover any trace of the plunder of the junk. The country is extremely fertile, the scenery grand, and the population very dense. There is considerable cultivation.